Women, it pays to be thin: study
Salary-wise, we get a good bit of data in the discrepancies between men and women.
We see that, for example, guys tend to earn more than their lady counterparts, regardless of experience, education or performance. Does this piss ambitious women off at every turn? Of course!
Yet, rarely do we get compensation breakdowns within each gender, and it’s even more uncommon we get them by body mass index. Now, we have them. So, ladies and gentlemen, get out your scales and get out your bank statements. Let’s get started:
By numbers in a new University of Florida study, thin women earn more than females of average and obese weights, while thin men are compensated much less than their more portly male colleagues.
According to the survey, which accounted for some 11,000 Germans and 12,000 Americans, the corporate world’s pay structure may be much like the fashion industry where women employees are concerned.
Very thin women, as the study phrases the group who are 25 pounds less than average weight, earn a mean of $15,572 more annually than women of normal body mass. Similarly, overweight women – defined here as 25 pounds above average weight – earn a mean of $13,847 less each year than women of normal body mass.
On the male side, thin men earn $8,437 less than fellows of average weight every turn of the calendar. From there, the study notes, pay for male workers increases steadily until guys reach 207 pounds – the tipping point where compensation then begins to trail off, on average.
Sound confusing? It is. Lot of moving parts here. To simplify things, let’s say a hypothetical office employs the following six celebrities. Here’s how their pay might break down, scrapping that 207-pound mark since I wanted an excuse to write about a certain Roseanne star the Friday before Thanksgiving:
1) John Goodman -- $100,000 per year
2) Keira Knightley -- $85,500
3) Matthew Fox -- $75,000
4) Rachael Ray -- $70,000
5) D.J. Qualls -- $67,500
6) Aretha Franklin -- $56,000
I’ll let you guys suss out what job titles these celebs might have (Franklin = director of … mashed potatoes?), but this study gives us a good chance to step back and look at what’s going on in our own offices.
When you consider the employees at your work, do these pay gradings make sense? Do thinner women earn more than others, and do thinner men earn less?
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Confused | Oct 9, 2021 6:06:29 AM
I was trying to follow this article, but I am lost here. It was like Jason was thinking of a very statistical, tricky way of making women thinner. Alas, we have this article. Mind you, there are other articles on this same subject. What is not accounted for in this article, other articles alluded to in the article, and the economic data is how the data is collected. For instance, do researchers weigh subjects in the sample group. Are the subjects from the sample group contacted by phone? What kind of person would reveal that he/she is overweight? Maybe someone that wants to blame his/her financial hardship on his/her weight problems. Moreover, I think it is funny how the article that is linked to the MSN Money article deems obesity to be a cause of lower labor productivity. How exactly do you calculate that? Are overweight people calling in to work and blaming their sickness on obesity? I'm sure if it is a heart/cholesterol problem, you could create the link. Otherwise, this is a poor correlation. However, it is controversial. So, yay MSN Money for another one of your piss poor articles.
Posted by: Lisa | Oct 11, 2021 5:08:46 PM
Yes, Mr. Buckland has yet again proven that he wrote a bad article.
How did you get this job? Maybe my teenager should apply for this position.
Anyway...weight, in today's day has no relevance in the marketplace. This aritcle shouldn't even be considered an article.
Posted by: HighlyConfused | Oct 11, 2021 6:33:01 PM
i have to agree with the other two. this article made no sence what so ever. first they talk about women then men. why is the article addressing women when it says more about men?? and why do they need to address the insecurities women face every day, we already know our weight be looked at, why do they need to give us another reason to feel bad about ourselfs? and how do they know that the people in the studys can even be compared? do they all work at the same place? work the same hours? do the same jobs? i highly dout it.
Posted by: average woman | Oct 11, 2021 6:36:35 PM
Are you kidding me, seems it was not that great a study when you consider the small amount of people studied, I know that is not the way it works in our office, we all get paid well lets say like we are very over weight if we went by this silly nonsense, I think it may work out to be a confidence thing more than a weight thing. Hmm I suppose some people get paid to do a job not so well done in this case.
Posted by: summer | Oct 11, 2021 6:46:13 PM
There's nothing wrong with the way this article is written. The writer didn't create the survey, he's just reporting it. If you normal sized or overweight women want something to be angry about, try directing it at the gender prejudices that result in this kind of pay discrepancy. Obviously it's a case of attractive women being rewarded more than unattractive women for the same work. Not news to me, sadly.
Posted by: Esther Williams | Oct 11, 2021 10:21:09 PM
Crap!
Posted by: Ken | Oct 12, 2021 4:14:18 AM
Not a great article but probably true in some respect...Depends where you work...once your in you are not long figuring out the way things run and what is expected of you to climb the ladder of success....Whether we choose to follow the steps will be the challenge of how we succeed into the future and obviously reflects on our earnings potential as we move through the processes.
Posted by: Mike | Oct 15, 2021 9:26:38 AM
Are the commenters on this articles always so clueless?
If you think 23000 people is a small sample size, you fail at statistics.
Or perhaps everyone is like Lisa and thinks that just because they don't agree with something it shouldn't be reported. If I write a historical analysis of the political policies of the 3rd Reich, does that mean I agree with them? Of course not you knob.
Posted by: Lisa | Oct 24, 2021 3:42:46 PM
Mike, why would you waste one second of your life writing about something that you do not agree with? In other words, why would you write about something you do not think is fact? and...if you believe that this is fact, who is the stupid one here Mike?